Royals withstand Marlins' charge in win

Jun 17, 2007 - 11:13 PM
KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Esteban German delivered a
go-ahead double in the sixth inning Sunday and the Royals held
on for a 5-4 victory over the Marlins in the rubber game of
their three-game series.

Kansas City took advantage of a some softly hit balls that found
a hole and a couple of errors by rookie center fielder Brett
Carroll to scrape out enough runs and complete its third
straight series win.

"They're allowed to do that," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez
said of the bloop hits. "They hit the ball and it fell. That
happens. It's frustrating, but that's baseball. If we make a
play here or there, or catch a ball, it's a different ballgame."

Trailing, 2-1, in the third inning, Kansas City put runners at
first and second with two out for Emil Brown, whose pop fly fell
in for a single in short left-center, driving in David DeJesus
to tie the score at 2-2.

"It seems like when you are playing good baseball and you hit
balls off the end of your bat, they end up falling in," Kansas
City catcher Jason LaRue said.

Carroll, playing in his first major league game, then muffed the
ball, allowing Mark Teahen to score. Carroll was charged with
a second error when his throw home sailed over the catcher,
allowing Brown to advance to third. Gordon followed with a
pop-fly single, scoring Brown for a 4-2 lead.

"I wish I could say it was good, to get the first one out of the
way," Carroll said. "But not in this fashion. I tried to do a
little too much; I was a little too aggressive. I thought
about trying to dive for it, then I thought I should try to keep
it in front of me but it got away. It was not a good first
day, but I will have to learn from it."

"The ball didn't bounce our way," Florida's Aaron Boone said.
"It's a little frustrating. We swung the bats good and pitched
good. A couple of little doinks fell in for them. We answered,
but we couldn't finish them off."

Jeremy Hermida's sixth home run of the year - a two-run shot -
tied the score at 4-4 in the sixth inning, but Kansas City
answered again in the bottom half of the frame.

In the bottom half, after Tony Pena Jr. reached on a one-out
bunt single against Kansas City starter Scott Olsen (5-6),
German doubled to deep right-center field, scoring Pena with the
go-ahead run.

"We have to fight, no matter what the score is," German said.
"We try to always go up to bat like the score is tied."

That hit made a winner of Brian Bannister (4-3), who allowed
four runs and nine hits in six-plus innings to win his fourth
straight decision. His streak of 18 scoreless frames was snapped
in the second inning on doubled in a run in the third inning.

"I try to play chess games with the hitters," Bannister said.
"Today I was just thinking, 'How can I get through this?' I was
playing chess again today, but it was like not having my queen
or my rook."

The Royals survived a scare in the top of the seventh when Boone
doubled to lead off the inning, driving Bannister from the
game. Carroll bunted Boone over to third and with the infield
drawn in, reliever Zack Greinke got Alfredo Amezaga on a
grounder and Dan Uggla on a fly to right to preserve the lead.

"Sometimes, as a pitcher, everything clicks," Bannister said.
"Today didn't feel that way. I was committed to not walking
guys, so I was wild in the strike zone and I kind of spread
things out. I just tried to buckle down and make my pitches
when I had to.

"The only pitch I regret is the one to Hermida. I've got to
give credit to our defense and to our offense for picking me up.
Give those guys credit. Every time I gave up a run, those
guys came right back."

Greinke pitched two scoreless innings before handing the lead to
closer Octavio Dotel, who survived a hit and subsequent stolen
base in the ninth to record his fifth save in as many chances.

Olsen allowed 10 hits and five runs in six innings, walking
three and striking out five. It was the ninth time this year
that Olsen had walked at least three.

"Olsen did OK," Gonzalez said. "Not getting the shutdown inning
after we score is what hurts you. It's about the momentum;
it's important, probably not in the statistics, but it's
important because of the momentum."

MLAT KANSAS CITY - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY JEREMY HERMIDA (6) TO RIGHT WITH 2 OUT IN THE 6TH OFF BRIAN BANNISTER SCORED JOSH WILLINGHAM.CURRENT SCORE: FLORIDA 4, KANSAS CITY 4DUE UP FOR FLORIDA: M OLIVO (.250, 0-FOR-2)